Announcing our Elements competition

Quote by LordCephius

Have you noticed more readers finding these competition entries? My story has three times more views than most of my comp entries! Maybe it's the 'mainstream' category I chose. 😈

Yup. I think it’s a really great theme with a lot of reader appeal.

Quote by LordCephius

Have you noticed more readers finding these competition entries? My story has three times more views than most of my comp entries! Maybe it's the 'mainstream' category I chose.

Competitions get a fairly high number of reads because entrants tend to read each other's for support. But yes the category can make quite a difference to reader volume, depending on how many are watching it.

I find it interesting that, besides the people who follow me, how different account names crop up on the Likes list when I venture into a new category. It's like some people gravitate towards one thing they particularly enjoy and don't stray much. So, as authors, something you may be proud of gets relatively low views if it's in a non-mainstream category. Such is the nature of Lush.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith
So, as authors, something you may be proud of gets relatively low views if it's in a non-mainstream category. Such is the nature of Lush.

Yup. The story I have been most proud of has (despite the RR), after nearly 5 years, a grand score of (wait for it...) - 10 votes and 2189 reads. That'll teach me to publish in 'Novels' with tags of 'fantasy', 'history' and 'legend' lol... With an even lower score for Part 2, I lost the will to continue. Still trying to convert it to an actual novel, but never seem to find the time.

One day...

Out of curiosity, how many entries have there been?

Quote by Mandapanda2025

Out of curiosity, how many entries have there been?

53 by my count. Somewhat lower than usual, but there may be a flurry near the end.

Quote by kistinspencil

53 by my count. Somewhat lower than usual, but there may be a flurry near the end.

I hope that just means a late made rush, and isn't some term for something I've never heard of. Always a worry in here,,,

' Her flurry shone in the moonlit sky, as the tentacled beast slithered toward her' etc. etc.

53 is not bad, to my eye, esp. with 9 days left. Low for here but it's also open to longer, more involved stories and not everyone can do 3000 words in short order. I got kind of lucky that I hit on a good idea and managed to wrangle time to work on it before I skittled off to (somewhat) warmer parts of the Earth. The high numbers in some comps are because they are Flash and those are easier to "bash out" even if they sometimes need more judicious editing to fit the limit.

Quote by kistinspencil
53 by my count. Somewhat lower than usual,

Or the disallowance of AI entries has put some off, perhaps...?

Quote by TheShyThespian

Or the disallowance of AI entries has put some off, perhaps...?

One can only hope.

Quote by TheShyThespian

Or the disallowance of AI entries has put some off, perhaps...?

Frankly, I haven't a clue what an Ai story looks like, much less reads like. Why don't we capture one for educational purposes and put it on display (in a cage, of course) in the Forum, (clearly labeled as potentially dangerous)

Quote by Piquet

Frankly, I haven't a clue what an Ai story looks like much less reads like. Why don't we capture one and put it on display (in a cage of course) in the Forum, (clearly labled as potentially dangerous) for educational purposes?

"Robots In Lust" written by Claude G. P. T. or something.🤣

Quote by Piquet

Frankly, I haven't a clue what an Ai story looks like much less reads like. Why don't we capture one and put it on display (in a cage of course) in the Forum, (clearly labled as potentially dangerous) for educational purposes?

My only worry remains how many people end up knowing far more about cattle breeding than they'll ever need to, with the searches for AI that must happen. Hopefully, they won't try to breed from what you hope to cage in this way.

Quote by TheShyThespian

Or the disallowance of AI entries has put some off, perhaps...?

Ding ding ding

I think the Elements theme is a good one for competition first-timers. A broad word count range, and I believe you can sneak an “element” into most stories. 😀

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

Competitions get a fairly high number of reads because entrants tend to read each other's for support. But yes the category can make quite a difference to reader volume, depending on how many are watching it.

I find it interesting that, besides the people who follow me, how different account names crop up on the Likes list when I venture into a new category. It's like some people gravitate towards one thing they particularly enjoy and don't stray much. So, as authors, something you may be proud of gets relatively low views if it's in a non-mainstream category. Such is the nature of Lush.

I don’t stress too much about numbers. Happy to have people read and enjoy. What in my opinion are my best stories, don’t have high figures. My least favourite which are in a popular category, are much higher. As you say such is the nature of Lush.

Quote by Shyexhibitionist

I don’t stress too much about numbers. Happy to have people read and enjoy. What in my opinion are my best stories, don’t have high figures. My least favourite which are in a popular category, are much higher. As you say such is the nature of Lush.

And it also seems that, regardless of how well-written you think your story might be, sequels are always going to have fewer views and likes than the previous part. But this obviously isn't a factor for competition entries